Wuthering Heights – or should we say "Wuthering Heights" – has been one of the most-talked about movies of the year to date, for better or worse, and the conversation is set to continue as it's now confirmed its imminent digital release date.Warner Bros has confirmed that you'll be able to buy or rent the movie from Monday 30 March. You can pre-order Wuthering Heights right now on Prime Video and AppleTV to be able to watch it as soon as it's released next Monday.Wuthering Heights is still out in cinemas if you want the big-screen experience, with the movie currently the third-biggest release of 2026 with an impressive $234.4 million to date worldwide. (Ian Sandwell)
Due to the multiple new movies, the period romance drama has dropped out of the top 5 and is at #10 this weekend. The film grossed only $475k on its 6th three-day weekend at the domestic box office. The movie declined by 71.6% only from last weekend and lost a harsh 1,300 theaters in North America. The film is running on only 601 screens in its home territory. After its 6th weekend, the domestic total of the Margot Robbie starrer is $83.3 million [via Box Office Mojo].Trade analyst Luiz Fernando‘s report reveals that Wuthering Heights is still experiencing a strong run at the overseas markets. Internationally, the romance drama raked in $3.1 million in its 6th weekend across 78 markets. With just a 48.3% drop from last weekend, the movie’s overseas total has hit $151.1 million cume. Allied to the domestic total of $83.3 million, the worldwide collection of the period drama is $234.4 million. It is tracking to earn around $250 million in its global run.According to media reports, the Margot Robbie-starrer period drama was made on a budget of $80 million, and thus its break-even target is $200 million, applying the 2.5x multiplier rule. The period drama has earned $34.4 million above its break-even point, representing a 17.2% gain. It is in a profitable territory and is expected to continue for a bit longer. (Esita Mallik)
MJ: Obviously, the production design provides a huge contrast between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and I was wondering what kind of conversations you had with Emerald to sonically delineate the two? Because the Thrushcross tracks are so much lighter and more magical, compared to the darker, sinister tones of the Heights—how did that develop in your conversations?AW: Yeah, Emerald really loved the idea of these two distinct worlds. The thing with Thrushcross is that it had to be intriguing, like a box of chocolates, but that actually ultimately it’s all surface. It doesn’t fulfill Cathy. So we wanted to make sure that as beautiful as Thrushcross is as a place, that emotionally it can’t satisfy Cathy. Therefore, the music with Heathcliff has more yearning, and a more emotional connection.With the Heights, Emerald definitely wanted something unsettling and more unforgiving. The Wuthering music had to tie into Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) where her father is a trigger for her—one moment he’s jovial and the next he’s really got under her skin. And that comes back when she goes to see him at Christmas, and he’s back to that same taunting. So yeah, they’re very different palettes.In the Heights, one of the things I was proud that we did was we put the yearning b-section from the main theme, very slow and kind of twisted, as the camera pans back on the building. It’s fractured amongst the different parts of the string section, so it is a sign of the tragedy to come.MJ: There are two tracks near the start—“Kindest Man Alive” and “Very Important Family”—that use kind of discordant thrumming and drumming in a dark/sinister way, also very foreboding and portentous. How did you build these two tracks?AW: Emerald liked the idea of Earnshaw riding out to the pub where he drinks and gambles, and of course, we’ve just had the hanging scene, so we both liked the idea of tying in the sound of this foreboding hanging drum. Earnshaw going out is of course nothing new for Cathy, but she’s just been to her first hanging. So she’s in a particularly vulnerable state, she’s just learned about things that are changing her. So the drum connecting her to that nightmare was something that Emerald really liked the idea of.And there’s these kind of grunting, visceral cellos, and we did some strange, scraping bowed guitar—stuff that sounds like a perversion of a folk palette really was what Emerald was interested in. The strings are intimate, you can feel the kind of tactile touch of the playing, and the sliding, twisting, slow version of part of the theme—that was a big part of it. Then we wanted a more playful version of it for “Very Important Family,” where it comes back to this prideful Earnshaw feeling, using banjos and this slightly perverse folk sound.MJ: At what stage did you know that you’d be working around the concept album by Charli xcx, and how did you find the process of composing tracks around her songs, which play a big role in the film’s soundscape?AW: Emerald and her amazing producer Josie did mention when I went to set that Charli was going to write some stuff. These creative moments are always interesting when you start out with an idea of something that might happen, and of course, you don’t know quite where it will lead, but Charli then just wrote all these incredible tracks, so Emerald was exploring them in the edit.Ultimately when she settled on Charli’s track “House” for the opening, we really liked that dark, folky, slightly ritualistic feel, but it needed a bit more scope for the scene with the size of the crowd, so I added a kind of ritualistic folk rhythm over the top of it, and some low choir, and some low harps and tubular bell. Sounds that are a bit more idiomatic to a classic hanging scene. But really the essence of the track did so much, of course John Cale’s narration was really interesting, his poem that is a big part of the track too. So it was just adding some orchestration and scope to it, especially when the camera pans back and you see the house for the very first time from a distance, so that was really fun.And a lot of her tracks just worked really well as they were. “Open Up” was absolutely beautiful and went into the film very easily. Actually what was lovely about “Open Up” is that we did an instrumental reprise of it, where I added some strings. I think emotionally that’s a big link between the score and the final act, as you’re heading into the final act, we bring “Open Up” back as an instrumental when Heathcliff leaves for the second time, and that was lovely, such a beautiful song. And Charli’s producer Finn Keane was so great, he would send us different versions of songs to work with. So Finn and I talked quite a bit. Of course Charli, as a major pop star, was doing a thousand things, but she also did some really interesting extra breathing on “House” and interesting layers that were very useful.One of the really fun ones to get right was actually the moment that “Funny Mouth” appears. It’s such a good song, it’s both seductive but really quite dark, and it has some really interesting chord changes in it too. There’s the moment when Heathcliff turns around and they kiss for the first time, which uses my main theme, where they’re kissing in the Needle’s Eye—where they first bond as children. It cuts back to Nelly (Hong Chau) and Cathy, and Nelly says, “Does he know that you’re pregnant?” and there’s the decision that Cathy proceeds with this affair, so it had to have a dark longing to it. “Funny Mouth” just had such an interesting tone, getting the transition into that was quite a fun challenge, but it’s such a great track.MJ: “Kiss Me and Be Damned” is the pivotal scene where Cathy and Heathcliff finally kiss for the first time, and acknowledge their feelings for one another. It has to be romantic, but you definitely still keep the sadness there—how did you manage that balance?AW: Yeah, that was really what Emerald wanted, she wanted to live right in this space between hope and despair. So, starting with this hopeful yearning as children, and that’s a really interesting place to take it because the audience knows that Emerald is doing something different with the film. There will be unexpected things, so we wonder: How is this going to unfold? Is it ultimately going to allow for more of a union between the two lovers than the book allows? Similarly, in Ian McEwan’s Atonement (adapted into a film in 2007), you think they’ve had this life together and then it’s so gutting when you realize that was all just an atonement through the book. So, yeah riding that line between an ethereal sound and a more haunted sound. A lot of that comes from holding back.In the case of “Kiss Me and Be Damned,” that is a departure from the book. That moment in the book, Heathcliff leaves. So Emerald wanted this to be a very special moment where it definitely does err on the side of slightly more ethereal. But the theme was really designed to do that, especially in the b-section and the chords, the melody goes down and the chords go up. So you get this kind of conflict and a lot of descending leans in the melody that give you that sense of finality. It’s a piece that’s constantly trying to ascend, but it never quite gets there, it always comes back down.MJ: The whole finale [last four tracks] is completely heart-wrenching. How do you decide what to reach for (e.g. cellos, the minor key) that you know will just have a shattering effect on the audience?AW: I mean that final act was such a career highlight, as I mentioned when we were recording it with Emerald and Margot there. It was such a gift, as a composer, to have. I think, with just a few small pauses, it’s around 14 minutes in the film, almost non-stop. It really had to be worked out as a whole. I started working on it reasonably early in the process, because it was ultimately the emotional bedrock of the whole film.It was a tough nut to crack, because it all had to be conceived in one journey. One fundamental feeling had to be able to tie it all together. From the moment of Nelly going to Wuthering Heights all the way through to Heathcliff saying, “haunt me then, drive me mad,” I played it through all at once and was like “OK this is gonna work, this emotionally connects as one experience.” You need to make sure it’s in the right key and the right register, and most of all the right pace. It needed some pace to underpin the riding and the sense of urgency that Heathcliff has to get to Cathy, but also this slow yearning and relentless changing of the chords.I think Emerald and I knew that the corridor had to connect, we knew that this sense of flow had to connect through to when Heathcliff walks upstairs into the house. But I think we both knew that on that very first shot of the house, we needed the ring out of the previous section, and just a moment of silence, and wondering what’s going to happen next. Then the score creeps back in, picking up back where it left off, and the cello solo plays at its most vulnerable and intimate as he’s walking down the corridor. I think there’s a version of it, still at that moment, we’re sort of edging what might happen. Because we haven’t seen Cathy yet, as the audience, so again it’s riding this tone of “is this about to flourish into a really beautiful piece, or is it going to turn?” And actually we do turn really dark. The cello solo disappears up into these quite ethereal, ghostly harmonics that are almost like an organ as you see her lying there. Yeah, it was really special to work on it. In a way, recalling the journey with you gets me quite emotional myself.Emerald has these important moments of hallucination in the sequence, the most dramatic, large-scale moment in the score is as Heathcliff is riding, and then the score settles down, and you see Heathcliff with Cathy, and then, similar to Atonement, there’s the gutting realization that he didn’t make it. That was such a crucial anchor to hit because that’s what makes the next scene so devastating, that she never knew he was coming.Then we get this final runway to the incredibly famous Emily Bronte lines and you get the coda of the theme, which you don’t hear that much with the most yearning section. I mentioned earlier the theme going down and the chords rising against it. Well here in the coda, the theme goes up as well as the chords into this more transcendental state when we hear those famous lines. We went bigger with that than maybe I expected, but Emerald was sitting next to me as I was doing it, and it was a really special moment where we were really feeding off each other. I was reacting to her, and she was reacting to what I was doing. I think in career highlights, if I never worked again and somebody asked me what my favorite moment working with a director was, I’d say it was that, right there.MJ: I want to ask about my favorite track “I Will Wait for You,” which is basically a reprise of C&H from the start—how did you go about developing a sound that would evoke young Cathy & Heathcliff and then referencing that at the end to destroy our emotions?AW: Thank you, it’s my favorite as well, and actually, I’m really glad it’s that moment. It’s also Jacob’s beautiful dialogue over the top (Heathcliff’s letters to Cathy), and that little soundbite has got I think 2,000 videos on TikTok—that’s the bit people have attached to. It was really important that, structurally, Emerald really wanted to build this bond as children. So “C+H” is about them making this promise to each other that they will be there for one another, no matter what. And it was really important that that would come back at that pivotal moment. It’s so devastating that scene because he’s writing these letters and she’s thinking about him, but she’s not getting them. So for Emerald, those two moments were the places where the theme needed to work. And you know, the photography is so devastating there, as Cathy’s hand is reaching out for him.It’s an important runway for the film, where we’ve been in this really dark place where Heathcliff’s gone off with Isabella (Alison Oliver), and then the moment of the letters—“I Will Wait for You” has to prepare us for what’s coming, emotionally. And for me, the most important bit is when you see Cathy sitting on the bed and she’s imagining young Heathcliff holding her ankle—so that bit was really special to get right. In retrospect, I think what Emerald liked about it was that it almost felt like an old English hymn, almost something you could brush the dust off, speaking to the timeless nature of the story. That’s what she really liked about [it], and it had this plaintive quality, like calling out desperately, like a prayer.What was useful about that theme was that we could in some places remove the theme altogether, and just have the chords, and it would tell the story. That’s what I love about a good piece of music, when the chords themselves take you on that journey. There’s a moment when Cathy has essentially stood Heathcliff up, and then she tells him, “We have to stop this affair, we can’t do this anymore,” and he comes to her in the garden, and we reprise “C+H” there as well, but it’s just the chords. It comes back to this idea of Edgar (Shazad Latif) knowing that he’s never, ever going to be able to compete with this timeless love. And so hearing that kind of hauntingly in the garden was a really fun discovery. The journey of the chords was very useful for the story.MJ: “Be with Me Always” references “Dark Eyed Sailor” at the end—so you’ve got the folk influence as well as the Charli songs. This was always going to be one of the most important tracks as it’s the culmination of the film—how do you think the score as a whole builds to this track, as the finale?AW: It’s such a beautiful traditional folk melody, and Olivia Cheney does her version of it as songs when Cathy goes to get married and she’s thinking about Heathcliff, and then when he finally comes back (after 5 years away)—that as a bookend was really great. Emerald loved the idea of using the traditional melody, at its most innocent and most pure, just on a simple piano with one hand, no embellishments. Just very soft folk viola strings around it that then build into this very grand ending. She was so clever to use that song, so I loved doing our version of it at the end.And it really comes from this place of innocence—Owen (Cooper) and Charlotte (Mellington) who so brilliantly play younger Heathcliff and Cathy, they just have this very tender innocence to them and that’s what that piece really captured on the piano. The idea that in a different time, if things had gone differently, this is where we might have ended up. It was tricky to craft how it unfolded, but it seems to have worked well with audiences. If no one had cried until then, we generally get them at that moment. (Fiona Underhill)
Race is obviously a huge part of the book – it’s what strains Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship, and what makes it so easy for Hindley to force him into servitude. Heathcliff’s ethnicity is never disclosed in the book. However it often describes his dark skin, eyes, and hair, in addition to mentioning his mother as an “Indian Queen.” Yet in Fennell’s movie adaptation she casts Jacob Elordi, a white man, in this role. Especially in this day and age, whitewashing is a disgusting thing to be promoting with a huge theatrical release. There are plenty of talented actors who are people of color that could have played Heathcliff. Even if his ethnicity is ambiguous, there is little to debate: in the book, he is a person of color, which plays a vital role in how the entire story plays out. [...]To diminish work that mirrors real life experiences in this way completely erases the international heaviness of the topics of the book. This was someone’s real life. There were, and are, hundreds of thousands of people being abused and hurt by class and racism. Especially during the time period when Bronte released Wuthering Heights, those topics were unusual for an author to write about it. She was revolutionary for telling this story and including racism and classism in a negative light. This movie is simply erasing that, all the while the creative leads are admitting to it.The “Wuthering Heights” adaptation appears aesthetically pleasing and somewhat interesting, but as a separate entity from the book. It’s erasing the main themes, replacing them with explicit scenes and inaccurate costuming (mesh in the 18th Century?) with an entirely, and wrongly, white cast. Wuthering Heights is a literary classic, revolutionary for its time and somehow Emerald Fennell has managed to turn it into a spicy whitewashed romance, marketed in the trailer as “the greatest love story ever told.” (Laura Sands)
The hairs on the back of my neck tingle as I stare at the mourning bracelet once worn by Charlotte Brontë. Its purple-red garnet glimmers from the centre of a band woven with the hair of her sisters, Emily and Anne. Moments before, while touring the other displays of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, I’d eyeballed the sofa where Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë lost her life to tuberculosis, aged just 30. Museum volunteers around me chat about Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights film adaptation and one tells me some 500 visitors walked through these doors a day after the film’s release – close to double the numbers they received over Valentine’s Day weekend last year.In 2026, many travellers will be set-jetting across the Yorkshire Dales to see where Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi acted out the latest film’s tempestuous scenes. But after a surge in sales of the original novel, there will be others, like me, who’ll flock to Haworth for a Brontë inspired literary tour, with the Brontë’s parsonage home at its heart. The mourning bracelet that captures my attention inspired the replica Robbie wore to the film’s premiere. The surrounding village and moorlands, meanwhile, make up Brontë Country, the real inspiration for Wuthering Heights.It doesn’t take long for me to pull on my hiking boots and make for Haworth Moor. It’s here where the Brontës would roam with their dog Grasper, playing “brigands and bandits” and these wild, heather-clad heights instantly take me back to my Yorkshire childhood.From Penistone Country Park, just outside the village, I ramble along sodden, rock-strewn bridleways to reach the ale-coloured Brontë falls that gushes into Sladen Beck. I stand on its so-called “Brontë Bridge” beside skeletal trees and spot “Charlotte’s stone” where the namesake author purportedly sat. The ascent from here, past boggy ferns and dilapidated dry-stone walls, takes me to the loftier heights of Top Withens. Although the now-demolished Gothic High Sunderland Hall in Halifax was the apparent inspiration for the Earnshaw’s home, this ruined farmhouse is believed to have inspired Emily’s Wuthering Heights setting. Thrushcross Grange was possibly inspired by nearby Ponden Hall. There’s a beauty to the bleakness up here, even when an icy squall freezes my cheeks during the descent.My stay in Haworth is Steam View Cottage, a stone’s throw from Haworth’s Grade II-listed Central Park. Its claw-foot bath provides post-hike soaks, and two of its bedrooms cocoon guests beneath third-floor eaves. In the living room, the owner has filled a dresser with an array of Brontë books and from the cottage windows, I spot the Keighley & Worth Valley steam train – of The Railway Children fame – tooting through the valley.A short walk from here is the steep cobbled Main Street where traditional millstone grit shops and inns, blackened by the soot of the 19th century’s textile mills, speak to Haworth’s industrial past. There are nods to the Brontës at every turn: the shop where Emily bought her stationary; the Barraclough clockmakers (now the Hawthorn restaurant) that made the Brontë’s grandfather clock, and the Black Bull inn where punters sip Brontë-themed ales and snap the ill-fated Brontë brother Branwell’s chair. Those keen to flex their writing skills can attend author’s talks at the Wave of Nostalgia bookshop or check out the Brontë Writing Centre that holds courses throughout the year.At the top of the street is the parsonage, housing the largest collection of Brontë family artefacts and now opening six days a week in response to its rise in popularity. Next door is the old school room which Patrick Brontë, a champion for education, helped build. My favourite stop is the Old Post Office where the sisters once sent off their manuscripts to publishers under the pen names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. It’s now a characterful café where I savour a breakfast bap and Yorkshire brew, paid for over the original Victorian counter. I also visit St Michaels and All Angels’ church to see the Brontë Family Vault where all members of the Brontë family – except Anne – are buried.In the nearby village of Keighley, I head to East Riddlesden Hall, a gothic 17th-century farm manor that instantly evokes Wuthering Heights vibes. It was saved from demolition and gifted to the National Trust by the Briggs family who helped form The Brontë Society in 1893.Inside, its Lights, Camera, Brontë: East Riddlesden Hall on Screen exhibition (free with the £7 venue entry), spotlights the many Wuthering Heights adaptations filmed here. This includes the now-lost 1920s silent drama whose original screenplay is on display. I see the atmospheric Great Hall, with its deep-set fireplace, that inspired filmmakers of the 1992 adaptation, starring Ralph Fiennes (they created a near-exact replica up on the moors). Many believe the room’s 17th-century oak dresser, brought here from Ponden Hall, could be the “pewter-bearing dresser”, from the original book.My last stop is The Brontë Birthplace, Thornton, on the outskirts of Bradford. This was where Patrick Brontë spent “my happiest years” from 1815-1820 while serving as curator at the nearby, now-ruined, Bell Chapel. Queen Camilla officially opened the home as a Community Benefit Society-run museum after a nine-month restoration last May (self-guided tours from £6.50).As general manager Anna Gibson shows me around its Regency-styled rooms, she points out horsehair from the building’s original plasterwork and a fireplace in the family parlour, (now the museum café), in front of which the four youngest Brontë children were reportedly born.I can’t wait to tell my friends about the upstairs en suite rooms – named, you guessed it, Charlotte, Emily and Anne – where guests can now stay. I sleep in Charlotte’s room, now furnished with a plush four poster bed draped in pink and gold Jacquard style bedding; a chaise longue and pictures of Charlotte and her father. It feels quite surreal to imagine that all six of the Brontë siblings once slept here. And it feels like an apt ending to a journey that proves the Brontës’ literacy legacy is still going strong, some 200 years on. (Lucy McGuire)
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The Rondo Theatre, Bath, BA1 6RTWednesday 25th March 2026 - Saturday 28th March 2026Charlotte. Emily. Anne. Genius is relative.The Victorian literary world is a boys' club, and the Brontë sisters must fight for their place at the table - and not just with the establishment. Buckle up: Charlotte has some confessions to make about why she has literary icon status, while Anne is remembered as the 'other' Brontë...This wild, irreverent, funny play takes the literary legends off their pedestals and shows us three very real women: brilliant sisters who love fiercely but aren't above a bit of sibling rivalry as they strive for recognition and legacy.
It is now managed by the charity Brontë Spirit, which hosts community events, drinks festivals, craft fairs and wedding parties, and, in 2013, hosted a concert by rock singer Patti Smith.Council members voted to grant the licence on the condition a noise limiter be installed to prevent overly loud music from being played inside.Kathryn Thornton told members she had been organising events in the building for 14 years and there had only been one issue during that time.She said: "We never get complaints from neighbours. It is a great community asset for the village."She told the panel they had decided to apply for a full licence as it would reduce the reliance on Temporary Event Notices, which venues are only allowed a limited number of each year.However, the council's environmental health department said it was likely to get complaints that would "not easily be resolved".A spokesperson said: "I have received a complaint in July 2025 about the school rooms from a nearby resident, alleging loud music, raised voices and litter being thrown over the wall into gardens."The complainant said they could not sit out in their garden or open their windows when temporary events were being held, especially weddings or events involving music."Thornton questioned the complaint, pointing out there are three pubs a short distance from the schoolroom.Charlotte Kaygill, environmental health officer for Bradford Council, said the premises was not suitable for the licence, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.She said the protected nature of the building raised problems – the large, single glazed windows cannot be replaced with double glazing.Thornton acknowledged some bands had been "loud" in the past, but said having a dedicated licence holder on site would prevent this from happening in the future.She said the hall was more likely to host craft fairs than noisy parties, adding: "The School Room is a hive of activity, and we want to keep it vibrant. The last thing we want to do is upset anyone." (Chris Young)
Professor Aoife McLysaght, Irish geneticist and a professor in the Molecular Evolution Laboratory of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College DublinThis is a VERY hard question, and the answer seems to change over time. I remember reading Black Beauty and Alice in Wonderland as a child and loving those so much that I asked my grandparents to get me more of the same. They had beautiful hardback covers with gold embossed decoration, and I decided that I needed more books that looked like that, presuming I would enjoy them just as much. They found books with matching covers but they were the significantly more advanced books Jane Eyre and Little Women – these were quite a bit of a step up for me at the time, but then Jane Eyre became my favourite book. (Adele Miner)
If we look at “Wuthering Heights” solely within the context of what it sets out to achieve, Emerald Fennell’s latest project is a great success. As described by Fennell, the adaptation of Emily Brontë’s beloved novel is supposed to be a mix of what the 40-year-old director remembers from when she first read it at age 14 and what she wished had happened in Brontë’s version of the story. The resulting film may be far from a faithful recreation, but at least she’s the first person to admit that she “can’t say (she’s) making ‘Wuthering Heights.’” Hence the title’s stylized quotes.To give credit where credit is due, what results is, admittedly, a story best left in quotations — and not always to bad effect. The costume and set design, while historically inaccurate, establish a bold and evocative aesthetic that immediately sets the film apart from its moodier source material. The love story, while certainly racier than Brontë’s version, maintains the bones of Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff’s (Jacob Elordi) original tale of dark obsession and petty revenge. And, if we can forget for a moment that they are meant to be portraying teenagers, Robbie and Elordi’s performances are points of praise. It is, by all accounts, a perfectly decent film, so long as it is viewed only as exactly what Fennell promised: a pretty dream, colored not by realism but fantasy. [...]“Wuthering Heights” may have accomplished all it set out to do, but we cannot forget that art is not meant to be consumed in a vacuum, and the politics behind decisions like these are felt by audiences even if they aren’t addressed by creators. Film adaptations have a certain responsibility to engage with the source material as they translate it to a new medium and, in doing so, introduce it to a new audience. In the wake of a film like this, it becomes impossible to ignore how much is truly at stake in that act of translation, particularly when the role of translator is not taken as seriously as it should be. Fennell was perhaps right when she said “Wuthering Heights” is a difficult novel to adapt, though I don’t know that I agree with her assertion that to do so would be impossible. Instead, I am left with the impression that to do so might simply have been impossible for her.So, if you’re expecting an accurate adaptation of Brontë’s novel going into this film, expect to be disappointed. Instead of a harrowing family study that explores the nuances of generational trauma, obsession and revenge, “Wuthering Heights,” in Fennell’s hands, becomes a campy, sex-driven love story in the vein of Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” (a far superior film). Yet, while Fennell might be a master of cheap aesthetics — something that may be enough to make some people forgive the movie’s many shortcomings — I personally struggle to think highly of a film that is essentially just $80 million fanfiction. I’d rather just reread the book. (Camille Nagy)
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Ennis Players presentsA play by Jen SilvermanDirected by Sandra CoxMarch 24th – 28th 2026Glór, Causeway Link, Ennis,Co. Clare, V95 VHP0, IrelandA deliciously dark comedy set in the Yorkshire Moors in the mid-19th Century.The Moors by Jen Silverman is partly inspired by The Brontè sisters Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.Set on the bleak Yorkshire moors in the 1840s, this atmospheric dark comedy centres on two lonely sisters, their maid, and a talking dog—all seeking love, power, and fame. Their dreary lives are upended by the arrival of a hapless governess and a moor hen, leading to choices both desperate and destructive.
Haworth near Keighley in the Bradford district has been praised by Sophie-May Williams on The Metro’s travel team for being an “idyllic” spot, with the likes of the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Top Withens being highlighted for lovely things to do.It comes as the area home to the newly released Wuthering Heights film was recently dubbed one of the seven wonders of the UK to visit for 2026 by Conde Nast Traveller. (Molly Court)
Screen tourism is nothing new. Ever since the Lord Of The Rings trilogy let us all know that New Zealand is an actual real-world paradise, people have been seeking out the destinations featured in their favourite films and TV shows. However, in 2026, the trend is arguably more influential than ever. You only need to take a stroll across Richmond Green to spot the hordes of American Ted Lasso fans haunting the Cricketers pub, while Saint Tropez is already bracing for a surge in luxury travel following the announcement that the next season of The White Lotus will shoot there later this year.No surprise then that Yorkshire has seen a huge spike in tourist interest since Emerald Fennell’s headline-grabbing take on Wuthering Heights hit cinemas back in February. With Fennell putting significant focus on the dramatic vistas of the Swaledale valleys (yes, we’re talking about that rock), a whole new audience seems to have woken up to just how beautiful the Yorkshire Dales truly are. And given 2026’s other big travel trend for wholesome, outdoorsy escapes, it’s not hard to see why visitor numbers are going through the roof. Rambling and hiking through stunning scenery by day, holing up in a cosy country pub by night… what’s not to love? (George Wales)
You could say that each generation gets the version of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights it deserves. 1970 got Timothy Dalton’s impassioned glam rock Heathcliff, while 2011’s moody evocation of mizzly moorlands captured the austerity era. What does Emerald Fennell’s whip-cracking adaptation tell us about 2026?Uncompromising in its theatricality and emotional intensity, it heralds the return of full-fat romance. This is not romance of the polite dinner date kind, but a hearty, high-octane dark gothic fantasy, crawling across brambly knolls on hands and knees. “Kiss me,” Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff utters to Margot Robbie’s Cathy in a deep Yorkshire brogue, “and let us both be damned.” [...]Then, of course, there’s Romanticism with a capital R, referring to the late 18th-century movement in the arts, literature and philosophy. Rebelling against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, Romanticists sought a return to primitive wisdom and unsullied nature. Though published in 1847, Wuthering Heights is set in the late 1700s, with Emily Brontë deliberately putting her earthy and sensuous characters in a pre-industrialised landscape. Though popularly thought of as a love story, it’s essentially a cautionary tale in which emotions, intuition, and social codes come into conflict. Fennell’s adaptation seeks to tap into the characters’ primal emotions and instinctive desires. Much like the 18th-century Romanticists, we seek an escape from collective anxiety around rapidly developing technologies and the fraught nature of global politics. [...]Romance in 2026 might entail spending time away from the screen and indulging our senses: soaking in the bath, exploring the natural world, setting the table rather than scoffing dinner in front of the television. It might manifest as seizing the moment and making spontaneous plans; or asking someone on a date for their infectious laugh, not because they know their best camera angle. Ultimately, it’s about cultivating and paying attention: choosing to do less, but to fully immerse ourselves in what we do. Granted, this isn’t quite the S&M-style cavorting of Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, but in seeking out small moments of joy, wonder and heightened sensorial experience we can all cultivate a sense of much-needed romance – red latex corset optional. (Rosa Abbott)
Three years ago, we dressed in pink to go to the cinema to watch Barbie; in 2026, the mind-bendingly structured, early-Victorian masterpiece Wuthering Heights is the talk of Hollywood, and Netflix is betting big on Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet in Dolly Alderton’s forthcoming adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Intellect and glamour – which have always sat at separate tables in the high-school canteen of pop culture (you can’t sit with the cool kids if you are a teacher’s pet, everyone knows that) – are flirting hard. (Jess Cartner-Morley)
by Emily Brontë
Illustrated by Edna Clarke Hall (30 illustrations)Introduction by Dr Eliza GoodpastureEiderdown BooksISBN: 978-1-916515-05-5March 2026Emily Brontë’s dark gothic tale of passion, desperation and a fierce obsession which haunts two generations across the desolate Yorkshire Moors, is reimagined through the never-before-published illustrations of Edna Clarke Hall.In her day, Edna Clarke Hall (1879-1979) was described as "the most imaginative artist in England". A series and talented draughtswoman in the circle of Augustus and Gwen John, her creative ambitions were dampened by an unhappy marriage. Wuthering Heights allowed her to imagine a world beyond her own trappings and she obsessively drew scenes from this enduring tale for more than thirty years.For the first time, a selection of these drawings and etchings, drawn from private collections and the archives of national museums (Tate, the Ashmolean, Nottingham Museums, Manchester Art Gallery, National Museum Wales) are published alongside the novel for the first time.Art critic and writer Dr Eliza Goodpasture (the Guardian, Art in America, Artnews) introduces this all-but-forgotten woman artist and the power of one of the most enduring texts in English literature.
There is a meme circling online asking whether you’re an Emily Brontë or a Charlotte Brontë person. Every thirteen-year-old girl must decide, according to the post, with the implication that the way you answer that question at thirteen will determine the rest of your life. I was a Charlotte person, unambiguously. Charlotte’s world made sense to me in the way I needed the world to make sense at that age, offering self-respect, moral clarity, and—most importantly for my teenage self—a love story that felt earned. Jane Eyre taught me that suffering could be metabolized into dignity, that integrity was its own reward. I found Emily’s novel disturbing in a way I couldn’t quite name and kept my distance from it for years. Decades, really.Emerald Fennell’s new film adaptation has brought Wuthering Heights back into the conversation, and I suspect a lot of people are returning to Emily Brontë right now, or encountering her for the first time. Before you see it—or alongside it, or instead of it, depending on your disposition—I’d recommend picking up Karen Powell’s 2023 novel Fifteen Wild Decembers. It is the best preparation I know for that encounter, because far from softening Emily’s brutal vision or making Wuthering Heights more palatable, it offers something I didn’t have as a young reader: the context of what Emily Brontë was actually writing about, and why.Powell’s novel is narrated in Emily’s voice, and centers her role as primary caretaker for her brother Branwell during the years she was writing Wuthering Heights. Branwell Brontë—once the family’s great hope, the son on whom all expectations rested—spent those years in a spiral of alcohol and laudanum addiction, humiliated by a failed love affair with a married employer, cycling through rages and remorse, through binges and vows of sobriety that lasted until they didn’t. He died in September 1848, just months after Emily’s novel was published. She followed him that December.What Powell renders so precisely is the dailiness of that care. Emily hauling Branwell home from drinking, supporting what she drily describes as “two grown men up the stairs, one half-blind, the other incapable”—her father, whose eyesight was failing, and her brother, who could barely stand. Emily scrubbing a soiled rug in the back kitchen the morning after, while Charlotte’s voice comes at her “sour as an underripe plum,” asking why she can’t make Branwell clean up after himself. The landlord at the inn, looking doubtfully at Emily as Branwell is shouldered to the door, shirt half-untucked, one sleeve of his coat hanging empty: You’ll manage? And Emily managing, as she always does, turning him in the right direction and tacking their way home.These scenes are not dramatic in any conventional sense. They are repetitive by design, because that is what this kind of caregiving actually is—the same crisis with minor variations, the same hope extinguished in roughly the same way, the same morning after. Powell understands that the accumulation of these moments is itself a form of knowledge, and that Emily was accumulating it in real time while writing one of the strangest novels in the English language. (Ellen O'Connell Whittet)
The writer who changed my mindDuring the long summer between GCSEs and A-levels, reading felt, for the first time, like work. I trudged through Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, resenting the densely worded pages and Jane’s interminable stay at Lowood. But in class, when we began to analyse it chapter by chapter, it came alive for me. I think that was the year I started to notice the craftsmanship in how something was written.
This year’s spring play is doing more than just retelling a story.In Bearden’s production of Jane Eyre, Jane is followed from early childhood to late adolescence. Bearden theatre will portray this development through the use of two actors. This play showcases a unique collaboration between Jane as a child and Jane as she ages into adulthood to seamlessly portray one character across different points in time.Junior McKenna Webb (young Jane) and senior Caroline Alley (young adult Jane) have taken on the roles of the same character at different times in life, mainly focusing on matching each other’s mannerisms and personalities to create a smooth transition after the shift in age.“I just kind of watch what Caroline does and see how she moves in her facial expressions and what I can do to enhance that even more because young Jane is just a more vibrant version of older Jane,” Webb said.Webb describes young Jane as relentless, shaped by the hardships during her childhood and school highlighting the character’s emotional intensity and raw honesty.Alley uses this to build on to the foundation of young Jane with a more controlled and reflective version of the character.“She still speaks her mind, but more respectfully,” Alley said.This shift in mannerisms reflects Jane’s growth and maturation, especially after learning about forgiveness and restraint from formative role models in her life.Despite the differences between the two versions of this character, both Webb and Alley worked to maintain a clear connection between the portrayals of Jane. This was accomplished by studying shared traits such as intelligence, isolation, and emotional depth that remains consistent between them throughout the play.Director Ms. Katie Alley underscores the importance of their connection and partnership to the storytelling of the production.“They will want to have some similar mannerisms and make sure their dialect is similar,” she said.Through the careful work and observation of Jane and her journey, Webb and Alley are able to create a unified character and performance throughout the play. This collaboration between the two actresses highlights both their individual talents while also using their strong teamwork skills in bringing this complex character to life. (Kaelyn Martinez)
But the Yorkshire described in The Secret Garden, [biographer Ann Thwaite] says, is "the Yorkshire of her imagination and the Yorkshire inspired by the Brontës"."Frances Hodgson Burnett had certainly read both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and indeed probably all the Brontë novels," she says. (Seb Cheer)
And now there is a 3,000-word version of it. Three. Thousand. Words. Published by Infobae's own books platform, Leamos (Cumbres borrascosas en tres mil palabras, available for free on their Bajalibros app) — and then covered by Infobae Cultura as though it were good news, which is a remarkable thing to do to yourself. The argument being made, apparently with a straight face, is that abridgements serve as a "gateway" to the original — that readers who consume the condensed version might one day pick up the real thing. This is the literary equivalent of saying a postcard (in very low resolution) of the Yorkshire moors is a gateway to actually going outside.
In an exclusive sketch for Comic Relief: Funny for Money, Katherine Ryan and Jon Richardson are set to embody Cathy and Heathcliff in an unmissable Wuthering Heights sketch this Red Nose Day.Have you ever wondered who else may have auditioned for the leading roles in smash-hit film Wuthering Heights? Or rather, why Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi ended up in the role? Fret no more, as this Red Nose Day we are set to get a sneak peek at the exclusive audition tapes as Katherine Ryan takes on the role of Cathy, and Jon Richardson gives it his best Heathcliff, in ‘Withering Heights’.Comic Relief: Funny for Money is live from MediaCityUK in Salford on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Friday 20 March from 7pm, and for the very first time, live streamed simultaneously on the official BBC YouTube channel.The money raised this Red Nose Day could help people access food, shelter and safety – the vital essentials everyone needs to survive.
The reduction of the novel to a story of toxic love means that people who haven’t read the book will come away from this film with a completely different view of the story. Although the unsettling atmosphere might still be present, the characters seem completely different (Elordi’s Heathcliff would never have dug up Cathy’s corpse).All this being said, I did still cry at the end when (spoiler alert) Cathy dies.There are some good costume choices. Heathcliff’s outfit upon his long-awaited return is my favourite, and doesn’t seem out of place, unlike some of the music choices. I think I could have recovered from my disappointment about Kate Bush’s song ‘Wuthering Heights’ not appearing in the film if it still felt like Fennell had kept the core of the novel intact. But I suppose Charli XCX will have to suffice… (Abbie Fox)
Despite being over two hours, Fennel managed to capture my attention throughout the whole film. There wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t anxious to see what happened next, whether that be because I was nervous or excited for what was to come. On top of that, the cinematography, set and costumes were insane.I had been warned about the ending being tragic. And it was. Looking back on it, I should’ve seen it coming, but it still left me in shambles. I was a crying wreck. But, it also made me see the true reality of a relationship and that not all love stories have happy endings. (Sutton Bulkeley)
MR: Can we talk about Isabella? Obviously, your character in Wuthering Heights, and she is my favourite thing ever. You’re so funny in the movie. Your physicality for Isabella is so distinctive and perfect and hilarious. People are going to lose their minds when they see you. I’m so excited for this moment. I remember seeing you find that character and I saw how rigorous you are in your preparation. Your notebook that you would check in between takes with tons and tons of writing in it. I’m curious – what was your process for Isabella, and then what’s your process in general?AO: Isabella felt very clear to me. Emerald’s writing is so amazing, that character just jumps out at you when you read her. In our version, she’s a ward, and she’s actually lived in India until she was around eight, and then was sort of orphaned, taken in by the Lintons, and moved to England. Mary from The Secret Garden was actually a really big reference for the character, because she had that same beginning. But for Isabella, she’s obviously been so sort of, infantilised by Edgar and kept in this child state. I was just really curious about characters that have a kind of peculiarity to them. I remember Polly [Bennett, movement director] said something to me which was really interesting. We talked a lot about that era and how much is repressed, how much is not allowed, and how you’re almost trained and bred into being a good little girl. Then when anything repressed is let out, it’s really messy and unorganised. With Isabella, there’s so much in her, but she has to lock so much of it away – she’s like, reverberating. Desperately wanting to kiss someone – or strangle someone.MR: She’s practically vibrating. I’m so bummed the scene didn’t make the cut where Isabella’s saying her prayers before bed, but then pulls out this 18th-century porn. [both laugh] And that book, which, by the way, is a real book, is crazy.AO: It’s actually horrific.MR: The images in it. When people are like, “I’m so worried about the youth of today, because what they’re seeing online is giving them an extreme idea of sex,” honestly, looking at this book, I was like, what on earth did people back then think sex was? The illustrations in this 18th-century porn book – essentially a porno – honestly, it was like Cirque du Soleil. [laughs]AO: It was completely awful. But that’s the repressed thing: if it’s all so shameful, then when you let it out, it’s this fucking weird thing. That’s sort of Isabella. I loved playing her so much.MR: Do you think she’s the funniest character you’ve played?AO: Yes. Emerald is also so great; she really lets you push things or let go. It’s such a freeing thing when the person you’re working with is really encouraging you to find that. I think there are loads of different ways of interpreting that character, and the way Emerald interpreted her was so exciting to me. What’s interesting about Isabella and Cathy is that Isabella is the reverse of Cathy. It’s like there’s an uncorseting of Isabella that happens. But in that uncorseting, she’s actually free. Whereas in reverse, you are coming from something wild and passionate and crazy, and then it all sort of gets cleaned up. But that’s actually not the answer. It’s an interesting study of that time for women: the options available, or the life available to you, was so limited. I don’t know if you found this, but when I was in the Wuthering Heights house, I was like, “I feel so free.” As beautiful as Thrushcross Grange is, it’s quite contained.MR: I had the opposite. It’s actually when we were outside on location that I felt the most free. Wuthering Heights for Cathy, I think, is oppressing and dirty. Then she gets to Thrushcross Grange, and it’s so beautiful and clean. But then, like you said, there’s something stagnant about it. It’s kind of frozen, and that’s unnerving as well – but in a new version of oppression that takes her a while to realise is being inflicted. I just loved when we were on location – the landscape is so incredible, wild, harsh, and magical. And then on top of that, our personal experiences: we all got to hang out at the pub every day. [laughs] The best thing was that you guys were only actually needed for a couple of days out there…AO: Two scenes, but we were there for the week.MR: More than a week. You came and stayed out there just to hang. [both laugh] It was so fun. Every day I’d be messaging you guys, because everyone would be at the pub, and I’d be like, “Oh, I’ve still got another scene to go.” Then on our group thread, you guys are like, “Look at this waterfall we found,” or, “Look at this walk we went on, and we found a new pub we should try.” Jacob and I would just be like, “Shit. We gotta wrap this scene up so we can get to everything!” [both laugh]AO: That was so much fun. I was thinking the other day about when we shot all of those montage pieces, and how much fun that was, and so crazy. At the end of big days where we’d done big dinner scenes or where loads of people were in, they’d be like, “OK, we’re going to do the picnic!” or “OK, we’re going to do Christmas!” It was just like, it’s Christmas now.MR: And we’d always have fifteen minutes or something – it was mayhem. But the thing about Emerald is she uses every single bit of footage that she films; it all ends up being in the movie. There are even shots from the camera test that ended up in the movie. Cathy wandering in the courtyard – that was just a camera test shot. She uses every single scrap of film. Having said that, some scenes can’t make it, like Isabella praying and then pulling out the porno. Also that amazing scene where we do the walk around the library. Isabella’s so funny in that scene too, asking Heathcliff if he’s a man of science and pretending that she doesn’t care about that stuff as well. I loved that so much.AO: Emerald’s ability to create on the spot is amazing.MR: She’s both an insane preparer and an amazing improviser, actually – a lot like you, because you seem to be an insane preparer, and then also you can completely improvise. It’s so fun to be able to play at both ends of the spectrum.AO: I sometimes feel like I can only do improvisational stuff if I’ve prepared in an insane way. Maybe it’s a confidence thing, and I feel like I have to have done my homework before I can let go like that.MR: I feel like we are similar in that way – we approach things similarly. I have to do so much prep and so much work so that I can walk on set and throw it all away.AO: Because you work so fucking hard. I’ll never forget seeing I, Tonya and finding out that was you. I was like, “What the actual hell?!” And when we were making Wuthering Heights, seeing you stepping in, giving the most incredible performance, then stepping out and being like a producer, getting on a Zoom call, then coming back in, doing another take – I was like, “How in the living hell are you doing this?” It’s mind-blowing to me. How have you found having those different hats on set?MR: Honestly, I feel like I thrive on the multitasking nature of it. I don’t have a problem compartmentalising. I can sit in the edit on a film that I’m in and have no issue separating myself from the character on screen. And then [it’s also] loving the thrill of doing so many exciting things all at the same time. I feel like you have that too, because when you’re acting, you’re very aware of everything happening around you. You can feel if you’re moving out of your light or if someone’s blocking your light. I see you adjust, I see that you are conscious of where the crew members are, and you’re adapting your performance so that it works within the context of what everyone else is doing. So much of brilliant acting is lost because if you can’t be conscious of all the things happening around you, it’s not going to work in the edit, it’s not going to work on screen. Whereas you’re one of those actors who makes it work so that it’s going to end up being in the movie. And in order to do that, you have to be conscious. And in order to be conscious of everything else, you do have to be able to compartmentalise so many things. You have to be like, “I’m taking note of that – the camera, the lens, the light, what this actor is doing, how much time we have.”AO: I’m actually not just saying this, I swear to god, I learned so much from you. I’ll never forget the day where, you know, that long scene you had…MR: The hair-pull scene?AO: Yes. You have a million things going on in that scene. There were so many different elements. And I remember you were sat on the couch, and people were coming over going, “OK, can you make sure you sit like this? Can you not put your hair that way? Also the camera’s going to be coming in here, so you need to do that.” And you were like, “Yeah, no problem.” Then I was watching the scene, and I was like, “You did all of it.” I’m really not just saying this, but I actually feel like that was something I was so conscious of when I was making the movie – watching how you did that. I was really trying to learn from it. (Ella Joyce)
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By Jamie BarloweRoutledgeISBN 9781032539898Silent Film Adaptations of Novels by British and American Women Writers, 1903–1929 focuses on fifty-three silent film adaptations of the novels of acclaimed authors George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, and Edith Wharton. Many of the films are unknown or dismissed, and most of them are degraded, destroyed, or lost—burned in warehouse fires, spontaneously combusted in storage cans, or quietly turned to dust. Their content and production and distribution details are reconstructed through archival resources as individual narratives that, when considered collectively, constitute a broader narrative of lost knowledge—a fragmented and buried early twentieth-century story now reclaimed and retold for the first time to a twenty-first-century audience. This collective narrative also demonstrates the extent to which the adaptations are intertextually and ideologically entangled with concurrently released early “woman’s films” to re-promote and re-instill the norm of idealized white, married, domesticated womanhood during a time of extraordinary cultural change for women. Retelling this lost narrative also allows for a reassessment of the place and function of the adaptations in the development of the silent film industry and as cinematic precedent for the hundreds of sound adaptations of the literary texts of these eight women writers produced from 1931 to the 2020s.
Comic Relief bosses have made a spoof of Hollywood film Wuthering Heights which will air on Friday night (March 19) [sic] as part of the charity fundraiserA spoof version of Wuthering Heights has been made for Comic Relief.TV favourites Katherine Ryan and Jon Richardson play iconic characters Cathy and Heathcliff in a wacky sketch dubbed Withering Heights. It is a parody of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi's saucy Wuthering Heights adaptation.A BBC spokesperson said: “The cultural phenomenon gets the Red Nose Day treatment as Katherine Ryan and Jon Richardson’s audition tapes for Wuthering Heights are set to be uncovered."Have you ever wondered who else may have auditioned for the leading roles in smash-hit film Wuthering Heights? Or rather, why Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi ended up in the role?"Fret no more, as this Red Nose Day we are set to get a sneak peek at the exclusive audition tapes as Katherine Ryan takes on the role of Cathy, and Jon Richardson gives it his best Heathcliff, in ‘Withering Heights’.”It will air as part of Comic Relief: Funny for Money, which kicks off tomorrow at 7pm on BBC One. (Ed Gleave)
However, the film has renewed discussions about the book that has inspired several adaptations across the world, including Bollywood.For Aathira Suresh, a physics student and film buff, the latest film by director Emerald Fennell may be imperfect, but has spurred conversations about the many shades of Brontë’s characters.“I read ‘Wuthering Heights’ a year ago. I can vividly remember the descriptions,” she says.“At a time when characters were usually black and white, stories were about good and bad, she offered something raw. That people could be grey, love is not always pure. And though many nowadays call it a romance, it was actually about obsession and revenge, the often unexplored side of love. Brontë showed how wounded pride and obsession can destroy lives.”Notably, Brontë wrote at a time when women were often treated as little more than possessions. Within the haunting, windswept moorland setting, she also explored themes that resonate with feminist thought, Aathira believes.Cathy herself is an unlikeable character, full of human flaws and feelings. She is not the typical heroine of the time, someone striving to carve a place in society or seeking goodness in humanity. Instead, she is as imperfect as any other human.“Selfish, in love, and brimming with desire. Well, both were obsessed, weren’t they?” Aathira smiles.The story unfolds non-linearly and follows two families through the eyes of two outsiders: Ellen “Nelly” Dean and Mr Lockwood. They are unreliable narrators. One is a long-serving housekeeper who witnessed the lives of both families, the Earnshaws of Wuthering Heights and the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange. The other is a new tenant renting one of the houses.“This narrative approach makes the story intriguing. Readers do not see much direct interaction between Cathy and Heathcliff. That makes it all the more interesting,” says Archana Gopakumar, founder of The Reading Room in Thiruvananthapuram.The often-projected image of the gentry is also questioned here. Nelly, the housekeeper, becomes the one narrating their turbulent lives.“However, beyond a study of characters, their motivations and their breaking moments, ‘Wuthering Heights’ is an atmospheric horror,” Archana says.“Brontë describes everything — the environment, the moor, the dogs (I love them!), the supernatural, the candlelit dark rooms and the dark corners of the two castle-like homes. That itself makes this book a beautiful read about a ‘beautiful’ disaster.”The tragedy that hangs over every page unfolds slowly. The art of smothering one so seductively is what has made her pick up the book no fewer than three times.“And it’s witty when you don’t expect it. The satire shines through when the families interact, while the horror unfolds through a toxic love story,” she smiles.In today’s language, it would be called a “red flag” relationship. It is a story about “two people we pray never get together”. [...]“It is an unapologetic, raw, wild story that examines patriarchy without any reservation,” says Archana.This is perhaps what keeps the novel relevant even today. Tania Mary Vivera, associate professor of English literature at St Teresa’s College, believes the book’s enduring relevance is reflected in the many adaptations it has inspired.She highlights another important aspect: Heathcliff’s origins. “He is a foundling whose identity cannot be fully established. He has been portrayed variously as white, wheatish and black in different film versions, none of which satisfied audiences,” she points out.“Heathcliff is a mixed-race foundling, and that gave him freedom from the shackles of social identity, family name and regional identity. However, above all, it adds to him being misunderstood and mistrusted by everyone.”Though tragedy lingers, Tania adds, the book ends on a hopeful note. It brings to closure the long line of generational abuse and trauma, and the progression of lonely, isolated, orphaned individuals whose lives toggled between intense love and extreme hatred.She hopes future readers and the current generation — who will “undoubtedly” fall under the Gothic spell woven by Brontë — will carry that hope after they turn the last page. (Krishna P S)
I’m certainly not saying that Wuthering Heights was a good adaptation; it's one thing to change it up by adding something new and another to completely miss the point. When the book was released in 1847, it was also seen as grotesque, given the unchecked passion and brutality seen in the various toxic relationships between characters. However, Brontë uses the central toxic relationship as a tool to demonstrate the violence of class and racial hierarchies disguised by social norms. That social critique is not evident in Fennel’s adaptation, the recent State News review of the film says, “the only theme seeming to emerge is that ‘being ravenous is good."Despite this, there are a lot of people who groan at Hollywood for putting out remakes and adaptations, complaining about a lack of originality. In reality, a completely original, never-told-before plotline is hard to come by. Even if you start from scratch, it will start looking like a story someone’s already come up with pretty quickly. Think of how many times the story of star-crossed lovers has been told, and Shakespeare wasn’t even the first. But therein lies the solution to the stagnating story market: unfaithful adaptations.The beauty of the unfaithful adaptation is that it can draw audiences in with familiar characters or the basic outline of a story, but by changing something like the framing, environment, or medium, it can create something unique and fresh in so many ways. (Isabella Cucchetti)
Like many other women, I recently partook in the fanfare of seeing Wuthering Heights in theaters. If you prefer to keep your romance movies and global politics separate, you may want to stop reading now. The film’s central romance is notably similar to the US’ current diplomatic relationships. (Christina Sterbenz)
If I want Hollywood romance, I’ll watch William Wyler’s 1939 version of Wuthering Heights, with cinematographer Greg Toland demonstrating how the look of a movie deepens its emotional sweep and Laurence Olivier epitomizing what Americans want in a brooding Brit. If I want Yorkshire grit, I’ll watch Andrea Arnold’s muddy 2011 adaptation, which wrings the otherworldly elements from Brontë to offer a grubby glimpse of small-minded rural life. And if I want Wuthering Heights, I’ll just read the book. (Keith Harris)
Opposed to BRAT's focus on dance and club music, Wuthering Heights is a dizzying array of sprawling orchestral strings and heartfelt melodies, carrying with it a profound understanding of Brontë's prose. The theme of finding oneself through romantic and platonic connections is channeled through Charli, as it was with Cathy in the 1847 literary classic. Much of this search for identity correlates with the pop star's real-life experiences, marrying her longtime partner George Daniel (of The 1975) in July 2025. This milestone, in turn, is indicative of the project's greater contemplative qualities. Where BRAT felt like escapism, Wuthering Heights feels like facing one's emotions head-on. While a massive departure from her 2024 smash hit, Wuthering Heights is Charli at her most emotional and experimental – truly an engaging middle ground for the literary truthers and film defenders. (Nathaniel Clark)
Theatr Gymunedol Aberystwyth Community Theatre presentsby Lucy Gough. Based on Anne Brontë's novelAberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth SY23 3DE, UKFri 20 Mar - Sat 21 MarWho is the mystery woman that recently moved into Wildfell Hall? The Hall is isolated and semi-derelict. She is an artist and a single woman with a child; both frowned upon in 19th-century society. As the mystery unfolds, a life of struggle and courage is revealed. This is a story of resilience, survival, and an uncompromising need for truth and creativity. The play is framed by Anne Brontë’s reasons for writing this powerful, starkly honest, early feminist novel.
Commenting on the novel, Aberystwyth writer and director, Lucy Gough said: “Anne Brontë wrote a brilliant novel and I have worked with Aberystwyth Arts Centre Community Theatre to bring this to life on stage.“It has been an exciting journey, from novel, to script and now stage. I hope people new to the novel will be stimulated to read and enjoy it and those who know it find the play opens up fresh ways of understanding it.”This is the second time that Lucy’s love of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ has resulted in a new production.In 2024, loosely inspired by Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Lucy’s then new play called, ‘The Wild Tenant’ explored the complexity of a relationship overwhelmed by someone with addiction. (Julie McNicholls Vale)
The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton has been awarded £1,271.92 through a grant from the 2024/2025 Lord Mayor’s Appeal, headed by the then Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Bev Mullaney.The funding comes from a series of fundraising events and donations.Nigel West, fundraising co-ordinator for the Brontë Birthplace, said: "We are entirely self-funded and depend on grants such as the Lord Mayor’s Appeal to help continue our work."We are so grateful for this donation, it will help us to keep the Brontë story alive and ensure it remains an inspiring and welcoming space for generations to come." (Harry Williams)
St Oswald’s Church is one of Guiseley’s key historic buildings, known not only for its medieval fabric but also because the parents of the Brontë sisters, Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell, were married there in 1812.A copy of their marriage certificate is displayed inside. (Claire Lomax)
The more modern “madwoman in the attic” trope emerged in the novels of the early 1800s. In fact, this expression itself alludes to Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre, in which Mr. Rochester’s first wife, Bertha Mason, is kept secretly locked away in the attic of his home, Thornfield Hall, having long ago lost her mind.Inspired by Brontë, the literary critics and feminist writers Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar famously used Madwoman in the Attic as the title of their landmark 1979 work, which explored the portrayal of women in Victorian literature. Authors like Charlotte Brontë—as well as her sister Emily, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley, the pair argued—typically featured women in their novels that were either idealized ingenues or grotesque monsters, a dichotomy that naturally emerged in response to the distorted literary landscape (long shaped by male writers) into which their work was being taken.Given the understanding of mental illness at the time in the 1800s, consequently, having a female character who had lost her mind was an easy way of providing a story with a dangerous and unpredictable “monster” character—the perfect antagonist for the ingenue heroine, and a literary creation with which the reader was unlikely to sympathize. Charlotte Brontë, for instance, portrays Bertha as little more than a monstrous threat, with little agency nor much in the way of an explanation for her madness, leaving the reader to sympathize with Mr. Rochester instead. (Paul Anthony Jones)
It is true that profound pity ought to be the only sentiment elicited by the view of such degradation, and equally true is it that I have not sufficiently dwelt on that feeling; I have erred in making horror too predominant. Mrs Rochester indeed lived a sinful life before she was insane but sin itself is a kind of insanity; the truly good behold and compassionate it as such.
Emerald Fennell’s new film, Wuthering Heights opens with sounds of moaning and heavy breathing, which are revealed to be emanating from a man being executed by hanging, rather than in the throes of sexual ecstasy. His post-mortem erection causes an outpouring of emotion, including sexual arousal, in the rambunctious crowd. Among the audience witnessing the bizarre spectacle is the young version of the heroine of the film, Catherine Earnshaw.As Fennell explained in an interview: “it was important to acknowledge early on that arousal and danger are kind of the same thing, and it was important that the first thing we see is Cathy, this young girl, seemingly frightened but then actually delighted. It tells us so much about who she is, but so much about Brontë, too…”Notably, this scene is not in Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, but it is uniquely Fennell, and also ensures the film falls squarely into the genre of Gothic Romance. The Oxford-educated Fennell is additionally making an allusion to another novel of Gothic Romance, Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel, which opens with the narrator looking back on a moment as a seven-year-old when he witnessed a man who had just been hung. “See what a moment of passion can bring upon a fellow,” his guardian tells him.The disturbing juxtaposition of sex and death lies at the core of Gothic Romance, and, indeed, Victorian society, as well as our own. In her article “Sex and Death in Wuthering Heights,” Maria Kosikinen observes that both sex and death were perceived as threats to rational Victorian attitudes and thus both were highly regulated and ritualized. Fennell makes her audience as complicit as the onlookers in the perverse opening scene, revealing and shocking our own 2026 sensibilities as well.Arguably, the most important aspect of Gothic Romance, and the Gothic more broadly, explains its lasting appeal, which can be summed up by the great (Gothic) writer, William Faulker: “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” [...]Say what you will about his character, but the only “ghosting” one can imagine Brontë’s Heathcliff doing is the literal kind, which perhaps explains his lasting appeal, even if the Byronic hero is still being blamed for today’s dating woes. In Olivia Petter’s excellent Vogue article from January, “My Love for Wuthering Heights Is Why I Also Love Terrible Men,” she blames Heathcliff, whom she deems “literature’s original fuckboy,” for inspiring her frustrating pursuit of toxic men: “The bar is absurdly low…men will get a round of applause for texting us back or booking a restaurant. Where are the ones who’ll cry for us on the moors and dig up our graves? They might not be healthy, but at least they’re interesting. [...]Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, like the lauded 1939 adaptation, does not feature the second half of the novel, which deals with the aftermath of Cathy and Heathcliff’s toxic love-story. It therefore delves more into the romance, rather than the Gothic aspects of the plot and the repercussions of the first on subsequent generations. Why only adapting the first half of Emily Brontë’s novel was permissible in 1939 but not now is anyone’s guess. [...]Love or hate it, any film that revives public discourse, notably among young people, around a Victorian novel written by a woman two hundred years ago can be seen as a win, especially in a time when Humanities and English departments are at all-time low enrollment.In Gothic fiction, repressed things from the past return to haunt us. In today’s world, amidst new technologies including AI, and a far-reaching digital record, the secrets in our individual and collective pasts have never been more ephemeral, and, paradoxically, more immortal. What could be more Gothic than that? (Joanna Margaret)
I find this all frustrating. Wuthering Heights on a filmic level — the acting, sets, and cinematography — is beautiful. But, much like the story reinterpretation, all the substance stays on the surface. Despite all the pent-up sexual tension, the greatest tease this movie was hinting at complexity. In reality, the beauty on the screen went no further. (Devin Hung)
